1Furigana — small kana characters printed above or beside kanji to indicate their pronunciation. Commonly seen in learning materials, children's books, and forms where the reading of names or place names must be made explicit. In printing and publishing, it is also called 'ruby' (ルビ).
この本は難しい漢字にふりがなが付いているので、子供でも読める。
This book has furigana on the difficult kanji, so even children can read it.
申込書には、お名前の上にふりがなを書いてください。
On the application form, please write furigana above your name.
先生は黒板に漢字を書き、その上にふりがなを振った。
The teacher wrote the kanji on the blackboard and added furigana above them.
この人名の読み方が分からないので、ふりがなを確認した。
I didn't know how to read this person's name, so I checked the furigana.